


starlight

by simplyclockwork



Series: natural progression [6]
Category: Sherlock (TV), Sherlock Holmes & Related Fandoms
Genre: Developing Sherlock Holmes/John Watson, Drabbles, Ficlet, Fluff, M/M, POV Sherlock Holmes, Series, Sherlock Holmes & John Watson Friendship, Sherlock Holmes Has Feelings, Sherlock-centric, Slow Burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-08
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2021-01-25 18:47:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21360958
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/simplyclockwork/pseuds/simplyclockwork
Summary: "being in your presence always seems to fill my heart up"
Relationships: Sherlock Holmes & John Watson, Sherlock Holmes/John Watson
Series: natural progression [6]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1538974
Comments: 14
Kudos: 57





	starlight

**Author's Note:**

> Ficlet 6 in a series of short fics I'm planning to write based on posts from the tumblr account affectionatesuggestion
> 
> Another strange, reflective babble. Sorry, sometimes these will be kind of abstract, stream-of-consciousness type things. 
> 
> The series will follow a progression into an established Johnlock relationship

Never one for excessive gestures of admiration or ardour, Sherlock finds the concepts of intimacy and romance interesting in the way one may find a star interesting—because it is distant, far-off, and desperately out of reach, yet beautiful all the same for its unattainability.

And, because of such, he does not pursue such relationships; does not take notice of the importance found in time spent with others, and their small, inaccessible lives. That is, until John Watson enters his life, sweeping upon him like an inevitable avalanche of eager words and footsteps that keep steady pace at his side through London streets; a gravitational force that pulls Sherlock helplessly into its orbit.

When John hurts, he hurts, doubly so when the pain is done at his own hands.

_“I don’t have friends. I’ve just got one.”_

Time and again, his own words echo back at him. John Watson, captivating energy caught within a compact man of contradictions, is his friend. And, with pain in his chest, Sherlock wonders at titles beyond that; of concepts only glimpsed through the lyrics of deleted love songs.

Suddenly, that far-off star seems much closer, though just as dreadfully out-of-reach.

There are times when he catches John looking at him with an unfathomable, iridescent light in his eyes, and Sherlock, despite all his efforts, has been unable to capture the message behind such looks. His fingers itch to dissect those moments; to spread them wide and press them deep into his aching chest and rattling throat.

He’s beginning to believe that such emptiness can only be filled by bringing John’s lips to his own and pulling the man into his arms for eternity.

But, as with the star flung desperately, horribly far into unreachable stretches of space, Sherlock cannot comprehend how to bring such a bright, painfully brilliant intensity into reach.

So he allows himself to secede into an inevitable orbit around the force that is John Watson, a planet drifting without control around an authority it cannot possibly deny. Like the planet that circles the sun, he cares naught about the trajectory, accepting only that it is inexorable and preordained.

Like the tide flooding the beach, John Watson’s ebb and flow fills the spaces in Sherlock’s hollow heart.


End file.
